Edward Benjamin Senior Managing Director of eCycleElectric LLC, and Chairman of Light Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) guests posts at Electric Bike Report on the electric bike of the future.

We have not seen the end of improvement in utility. Batteries in particular have room for improvement. Motors will become even more efficient. The bikes will become even more beautiful. And just like a Toyota – they will rarely need service attention. Rolling resistance and aerodynamics will become important areas for improvement.

However, the bikes of the future will be far more interesting in the way they interact with traffic, with the user, and with other riders.

We are on the cusp of a time when almost all vehicles will be “talking” to each other while on the road. Combined with radar and GPS, vehicles will be avoiding collisions, staying out of each other’s way, making the best choices for traffic congestion and route – all with minimal input from the human operator.

Andrew

Yeah, battery improvements, and rolling resistance would be great. I don’t know how many people want to ride skinny tires though at speed.

The biggest problem I see, is where to ride at 20-30mph that I usually ride at. Too fast for trails or sidewalks, too slow for streets with traffic.

I'm not sure the intelligence he's describing will be, or needs to be, in the bike. I think it'll be in the apps in our phone - and manufacturers will be disappointed to find that the premium they'd surely wanted to charge for premium software features will already have been zeroed-out by traffic tracking and smart routing features in "free" apps from Google or Apple. He's absolutely right about efficiency, range, rolling resistance, aerodynamics -- these are the things that are unique attributes of bicycles and motors.